News Updates

A federal judge in California has ruled that a teacher barred from
the classroom because he has aids may seek damages from his Orange
County, Calif., supervisers.

The Jan. 5 ruling by U.S. District Judge William P. Gray cleared the
way for Vincent Chalk, a teacher of hearing-impaired students, to seek
compensation for the emotional distress he suffered after school
officials reassigned him to a desk job in August.

Mr. Chalk, the first teacher with aids known to have contested his
ouster from the classroom in court, returned to school in November
after a federal appeals court ordered Orange County school officials to
reinstate him. (See Education Week, Nov. 25, 1987.)

Marjorie Rushforth, the lawyer who represents Mr. Chalk, said the
new case could affect the way school districts nationwide handle cases
involving teachers with the disease.

"If one of these employers who discriminated against people with
aids had to dip into the tax revenue for a healthy amount of money,"
she said, "then school districts in other areas would stop excluding
teachers."

A coalition of black church leaders in Chicago has lost its court
battle to force clinics in three city schools to stop distributing
contraceptives.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Anthony Scotillo, in a Jan. 5
ruling, dismissed seven of the eight charges brought by the ministers
in a lawsuit against Chicago school officials. Because the church
leaders were not directly affected by the distribution of birth-control
devices at the clinics, the judge said, the coalition had no legal
standing in the case.

When the suit was filed in October of 1986, the church leaders
charged that the practice of passing out contraceptives at the clinics
was ''a calculated, pernicious effort to destroy the very fabric of
family life among black Americans." (See Education Week, Oct. 22,
1986.)

All three clinics are located in schools with large minority
populations.

The Rev. Hiram Crawford, the leader of the group and pastor of the
Israel Methodist Community Church, vowed to appeal the decision.

The U.S. Justice Department has filed suit against the State of
Mississippi and 30 of its county school boards, charging that officials
improperly changed election procedures without seeking approval from
the department's office of civil rights.

The suit, filed Dec. 30 in federal district court in Jackson,
alleges that state and local officials failed to notify the department
before creating a number of new municipal school districts. Residents
of the new districts cannot vote in the county board races.

Under the federal Voting Rights Act, all such election revisions
must first be reviewed by the department. Black civil-rights activists
have already filed their own lawsuit against the counties involved,
arguing that the new municipal districts unfairly dilute the voting
strength of black county residents. (See Education Week, Dec. 9,
1987.)

Mississippi school officials criticized the department's action,
noting that a bill pending in the state legislature would permit county
boards to revise district boundaries and remove any discriminatory
effects.

A Justice Department spokesman, however, said the lawsuit was
necessary because it is "unrealistic" to expect such a large number of
counties to comply quickly with the law.

Vol. 07, Issue 17

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.